The spate of tanker crashes in the country may not end anytime soon unless urgent steps are taken to address the remote cause of the problem, this is because about 80 per cent of the 10,000 petroleum tankers used for transporting petroleum products across the country lack critical safety features needed for the safe transportation of such commodities by road,
The Chairman, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Adetunji Oyebanji disclosed this on Thursday, in Abuja at the ‘Truck Renewal Workshop’ organised by MOMAN and Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO)
Oyebanji disclosed at the event that MOMAN was in talks with NARTO on the need for fleet renewal aimed at replacing unsafe trucks in the fleet of transporters.
While lamenting the state of some of the tankers in the country, Oyebanji said, “With about 10,000 trucks involved all over the country hauling products majorly from the South to the North, about 80 per cent of these trucks do not have anti-skid.
“They don’t have anti-rollover, anti-spill protection, automatic braking systems, onboard cameras and onboard tracking system required for safe transportation of petroleum products by road.”
According to Oyebanjo, pipelines is the most effective and efficient means of transporting petroleum products, pointing that the idea of a truck renewal plan was not novel to Nigeria.
According to the MOMAN Chairman, the idea had been carried out in neighbouring countries, whose trucks boast the requirement of safe petroleum transportation.
This came as Corps Marshall, Federal Road Safety Corps, Boboye Oyeyemi, said the FRSC was set to begin the enforcement of ‘no-safety-vale-no-loading policy’.
